Rosemary Tarquinio sure knows how to sing a ballad. Her lovely, caressing rendition of “Oh, How I Loved You” (Marcy Heisler/Zina Goldrich) was the highlight of her cabaret debut and she followed up a story about “The Boy Next Door” (Hugh Martin) by using that song to tell the audience how he broke her heart.  The song itself is exquisite, and Tarquinio sang it with sweetness and sincerity — abetted by a nice bass solo from Nate Light.

She demonstrated her strength with a ballad later in the evening when she delivered a warm, reflective version of “Glitter in the Air”  (Alecia Moore/Billy Mann), and again in her encore when she sang a soft, a capella “Nature Boy” (Eden Ahbez).  She also excelled on a sweet reading of "I'll Never SAy Goodbye" (“The Promise”; Alan & Marilyn Bergman/David Shire).

A TV executive by day, Tarquinio gave a whole new meaning to “channel surfing” in the amusing “TV Is the Thing This Year” (Phil Medley/Bill Sanford) and used the theme song from Laverne and Shirley — “Making Our Dreams Come True” (Norman Gimbel/Charles Fox) — to illustrate her feelings about leaving Pittsburgh to move to Los Angeles.

She showed a lot of nervousness early in her show, despite a combination of two Sondheim songs that belied what she was clearly feeling: “I’m Calm” and “Anyone Can Whistle.”  But her confidence was in place by the third song, her singing got stronger as the jitters went away, and she ultimately delivered a solid performance that effectively showed off her warmth, energy and refreshing candor.  Her voice, which seemed a little weak on some high notes, was very solid in her middle range.

She focused on her Italian heritage in a medley that combined “Come On-A My House” (Ross Bagdasarian/William Saroyan) with “Mambo Italiano” (Bob Merrill), then later conducted an audience sing-along on “Eh, Cumpari” (a traditional Italian song translated by Julius LaRosa and Archie Bleyer).

The show, directed by Jason Graae, also featured Musical Director John Randall on piano and Michael Solomon on drums.

Elliot Zwiebach
Cabaret Scenes
May 7, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org